I'll see what I can do as far as the other companies are concerned. Some I follow more closely than others. I could probably do New Japan pretty easily though

And on to Dragon Gate so far this year

At the end of 2011 and the start of 2012, Super Shenlong, who had been nothing more than a dark match afterthought for the last few years, began showing some heel tendencies, usually by attacking his tag team partner after a loss saying that he could never win teaming with garbage wrestlers like them. His tag team partners were usually one of the rookies, who at the time were being "tutored" by Don Fujii. Shenlong's antics would have implications later in the year. Also at this time, Tozawa became very harsh with his BW teammates, berating and/or attacking them if they lost or cost him to lose. All this while JIII was really gaining momentum in the feud. Naoki Tanizaki was injured at the end of 2011 as well. In Naoki's absence, Tomahawk TT began impersonating Naoki, using his moves, ring gear, etc. As of today, Naoki still has not returned from the injury and Tomahawk is still playing "Naoki Tanizaki". In the meantime, Cyber Kong continued to plead with Mocchi to allow him into JIII while trying to prove his worth as a wrestler. Mocchi seemed to be ok with it, but the rest of JIII, particularly Yoshino, were not convinced since Kong had betrayed them in the past. This continued until the January PPV where there was a "loser leaves the unit" 10-man tag match. During the match, Kong intruded and attacked Mocchi, seemingly betraying JIII and aligning with BW. However, he also attacked CIMA, who was then also attacked by Tozawa and BxB Hulk. After laying out CIMA, an unconscious KAGETORA was dragged on top of CIMA by BW, giving the match to JIII and forcing CIMA out of his own group. After the match, Tozawa took over leadership of BW and the new BW challenged JIII to an elimination 7 vs 7 losing team disbands match, which JIII agreed to. In the runup to that match, there was another "loser leaves the unit" match that was lost by GAMMA. GAMMA was taken off on a stretcher after the match. Ryo Saito and Genki Horiguchi had been on a bit of a losing streak, which planted them firmly in Tozawa's doghouse. They plead with Tozawa to be included in the "losing unit disbands" match, but Tozawa refused because he didn't want to risk them losing such an important match. That left the 7 vs 7 elimination match with the following teams

The elimination match lasted over an hour and came down to the two leaders as the only remaining, Tozawa vs Mocchi. Tozawa was finally able to pin Mocchi with the Package German Suplex and JIII was forced to break up. After the win, Tozawa also booted Saito and Horiguchi from BW. So now BW were the only faction left in Dragon Gate, which would lead to a massive unit reshuffle. The first bit of that was CIMA beginning to mend fences with some of the JIII members, namely Mocchi and Yoshino. With Yoshino, CIMA had suggested that he begin tagging with CIMA's old tag team partner Ricochet once he came back to Japan. Since his BW banishment, CIMA had been tagging with Don Fujii again, and Stalker Ichikawa also began teaming with them. Those three had been a team at the end of 2004 after Crazy Max ended. CIMA's next recruit to his new unit would actually be a returning GAMMA. Mocchi decided to officially reconcile with CIMA shortly thereafter, reforming the old "Veteran Army".

Susumu and KAGETORA had been trying to recruit Saito and Horiguchi to join them as "Jimmyz" since they were booted from BW. Saito and Horiguchi rejected their advances many times until they finally relented in March on one condition, that Yasushi Kanda be allowed to join as well. Susumu and KAGETORA didn't entirely trust Kanda, but were reassured by Saito and Horiguchi that he wouldn't betray them, so they accepted and "The Jimmyz" were officially formed. As part of becoming a member of the group, each of them was given a new "Jimmy" name. Saito became Ryo "Jimmy" Saito, Kanda became Jimmy Kanda, and Genki, in homage to his former "HAGE" chant, was renamed to Genki Horiguchi H. A. Gee Mee.

The show prior to the formation of the Jimmyz, Tozawa announced that since CIMA was no longer a member, the "Blood Warriors" name was no longer appropriate, so he was abandoning it. He renamed the former BW to "MAD BLANKEY", and changed their colors from Blue and Red to Yellow and Red. Later in the month, the increasingly heel Super Shenlong would join MAD BLANKEY and rename himself to "Mondai Ryu", which translates to "problem dragon".

Doi and Yoshino began tagging again, reforming the greatest tag team in Dragon Gate history, "Speed Muscle". They began recruiting members for a new group. Ricochet would be included per CIMA's suggestion, as would former JIII gaijin Rich Swann and PAC. Yoshino also tried to recruit rookie Chihiro Tominaga, but Tominaga rejected the invitation and instead tried to convince Shingo and YAMATO to form a new group and include him in it. With Tominaga not joining, the group is currently set at Doi, Yoshino, PAC, Ricochet, and Swann, and was named "World-1 International".

As mentioned, Shingo and YAMATO were content to just tag without forming a unit. Tominaga had begun tagging with another rookie, Yosuke Watanabe, but was still hoping to convince Shingo and YAMATO to form a new unit. Tominaga's persistence finally paid off last month when Shingo and YAMATO invited him to join their new unit. He agreed and suggested another new member, at which point a new Super Shenlong appeared. The new Super Shenlong, who looked an awful lot like Watanabe in a mask, was also invited to join. The new unit of Shingo, YAMATO, Tominaga, and Super Shenlong was later named "Akatsuki".

So, going into King of Gate CIMA does not have a new challenger for the Dream Gate quite yet. Most likely the winner of the tournament will get next crack at him. Doi broke an orbital bone on a show this week, so the Triangle Gate that World-1 International just won may need to be vacated, but no decision has been made yet. What has been decided is that there will be a #1 contenders match for the Triangle Gate on the next Korakuen Hall show that will see CIMA, Mocchi, and Fujii against a group of returning regulars who are without a group currently, Kenichiro Arai, K-Ness, and Super Shisa.

That's basically it for Dragon Gate. I can clarify anything if anyone has other questions about it though

Why does it seem Dragon Gate gets shunned from alot of the callobaration's like Super J cup (Which a few years ago they were more in but that may have been Torymon years) and projects like All Together. Sometimes they'll have a guy in there like they are being thrown a bone. Maybe it's my imagination and I've only noticed it on certain cards. I do understand they aren't as big as the majors there but they are bigger than some of the guys getting on.

I think it may be a combination of politics, geography, and audience. I don't think Dragon Gate caters to the same audience as the bigger companies do. Plus the fact that Dragon Gate is basically all junior heavyweights limits the matches they could be involved in on big cards like All Together. I think not being based in Tokyo hurts them sometimes also.

Though, to be fair, Dragon Gate does do collaborations with other companies. They have a representative in the Best of the Super Juniors this year. They have a joint show coming up with DDT, which they did last year also. Last year they also had a joint show with All Japan that also had reps from other companies, including a nice main event of Mutoh, Liger, and CIMA vs Suwama, Great Sasuke, and Yoshino. Susumu and KAGETORA are also the current Zero-1 junior tag champs.

For anyone who wants to check out Puro, both past and present, you should check out this site I just found out about recently. They put up playlists of both puro and lucha, usually a different company or theme every day, that you can stream rather than having to download. Last night I was watching some Kensuke Office/Diamond Ring stuff, and today it looks like they are doing classic All Japan. I'm watching Kawada vs Kobashi right now

In the midst of my dissertation on recent Dragon Gate history the other day, I forgot to post the results from the second day of second round action from the King of Gate tournament. Mocchi beat Kobayashi and Genki beat Don Fujii, so the semi-finals are now set as:

Apparently, Don Michael complained that he was too hot to wrestle, which Honda blamed on global warming, so everyone agreed to cancel the match to help protect the world from further global warming. Spectacular stuff

King of Gate semi-finals were today. Tozawa beat Kid and surprisingly Genki went over Mocchi, so it will be Tozawa vs Genki tomorrow night. Tozawa said he would win without any outside interference from the rest of Mad Blankey, so it should be interesting

Also coming out of today's show was the participants in the next "CIMA Royale" battle royal to determine a number 1 contender for the Dream Gate title. That match will also be on tomorrow's show. The entrants will be:

So the CIMA Royale goes to the self proclaimed worst wrestler DG, Mondai Ryu. According to the results on iheratdg.com, he promised to win the title while the fans booed him and it would be even worse than Kong's title match at Dead or Alive (which was allegedly horrible). CIMA was less than thrilled at the prospect of a match with Mondai Ryu, so he announced that instead of him getting a title shot, he'd have to first win a decision match over the new King of Gate champion Horiguchi.

Also, Tozawa decided to take out his anger on The Jimmyz by challenging Susumu and KAGETORA for the Twin Gate. They agreed on the condition that Tozawa pick Kong as his partner. Considering the losing streak Kong has been on lately, first to CIMA in a horrendous match, then the last two shows to rookies Kotoka and Kobayashi, Tozawa wasn't happy about it but agreed anyway

Also wanted to mention that today is "Mixed Bag Puro" on Sleazaresu today and the playlist looks pretty good. There's an FMW 6-man tag cage match on right now, and in about 15 minutes there's an old Toryumon tag match from 2001, CIMA and Magnum Tokyo vs M2K. Looks like there will be a big block of Dragon Gate stuff on later today, with some Michinoku Pro and other indy stuff in between

I really hope not. As much as Mad Blankey needs some legitimacy right now, Kong should be nowhere near any title. Tozawa/Hulk would be the only MB team I'd buy as Twin Gate champs

Quick news note from today also, New Japan had their last show before the Best of the Super Juniors kicks off next Sunday. Not much noteworthy happened, Goto successfully defended the IWGP Intercontinental title against Tomohiro Ishii in the main event

My hope is that they lose and Tozawa decides they need reinforcements and begins recruiting another member. Mad Blankey is ridiculously underpowered right now and a don't buy them as the top heel group. I think Dragon Gate missed a great opportunity to turn them into the next monster heel group when they put YAMATO and Shingo in their own group instead of turning one of them heel. You add YAMATO or Shingo to Mad Blankey and there's no question they're a legit top heel group

Blast from the past in today's results. Tajiri's new company, Wrestling New Classic, held their second show which saw Jado and Gedo challenge Tajiri in a tag match. In order to overcome the challenge, Tajiri called on an old friend

grizz632 - Blast from the past in today's results. Tajiri's new company, Wrestling New Classic, held their second show which saw Jado and Gedo challenge Tajiri in a tag match. In order to overcome the challenge, Tajiri called on an old friend

Tanaka has been full time with Zero-1 for years, and typically an outsider would only win a major heavyweight title if they were an absolute top-tier guy, had a previous history with the company, or both. Guys like Akiyama, Takayama, Kojima, Minoru Suzuki, Takada, etc. I don't think Tanaka is at that level. He held the IWGP Intercontinental title last year, and I think that's about as high as he is going to go unless he leaves Zero-1 to join New Japan full time, and even then he probably wouldn't get an IWGP title run considering the logjam that New Japan has at the top right now

And in "what a fucking moron" news, another monkeywrench has been thrown in the Best of the Super Juniors tournament. New Japan announced today that Black Tiger has been pulled from the tournament. The reason why is where the WTF part comes in. The latest Black Tiger as it turns out is NOSAWA Rongai. NOSAWA was a surprising choice for two reasons, one is that Black Tiger is typically played by a gaijin, and two being that NOSAWA had big legal issues last year after he got drunk and stole a taxi. He has been in Mexico with his girlfriend, joshi star Io Shirai, working a lucha show. While on the tour, NOSAWA and Io were given gifts by a fan, two portraits of them

Allegedly, NOSAWA did what any sensible person would have done when given a heartfelt gift by a fan, he stuffed them full of weed and tried to smuggle it into Japan. Both him and Io were pinched at Narita Airport when Japanese customs found just under 3 ounces of weed stuffed between the frames and portraits. Japanese laws being notoriously strict on drug possession they're both looking at healthy prison sentences and, if history is any indication, no big company will give them another shot for a long time, if at all. NOSAWA is a world class fuck up, so I have zero sympathy for him, but I feel kind of bad for Io. She's only 22 and was one of the bright young joshi stars for the future. This is the first time she's been in trouble from what I've seen, so hopefully it doesn't completely ruin her career

New Japan now have 2 days to get a replacement for Black Tiger in the tournament. They haven't announced anything yet

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